I get the feeling it wants me to fail.

Why do I feel that the game purposely makes me fail? To make what would be a long story short, I had a garbage start to the new save with Arsenal. I have finally picked up form a bit and won 4 or 5 games recently and my players confidence is sky high. Everything is great and we are slowly climbing up the table. So then I travel to Sunderland whom are bottom and only have 2 points from a possible 30 (yes they haven't won a game). Needless to say, I lose 2-0. It was a fairly even game but they are garbage and my left back ended up being sent off for 2 yellows after I was behind already. This has to be written/rigged up. It just must be. No way would I lose to them.

Teams at the top of the league do sometimes lose to the team at the bottom. It would take a bit more than that to make me think the game was against me!

Is this a serious thread?

There are several examples in real life of team losing against sides they should beat easily, these things happen just move on to the next match. You are seriously deluded if you honestly think the game is rigged and are giving the AI way to much credit.

Were Blackburn bottom when they won at Old Trafford?

No I'm not deluded at all. Why is Arsenal 11th in the league? It's crazy.

Sounds like Arsenal aren't being well-managed to me.

You are 11th with Arsenal?

Yes I'm 11th. Every time we pick up form I do the classic "miss 50 shots and give them 1 goal" match and our confidence gets shot.

It's quite possible your players became too complacent. You said you had some good form, high confidence and were against a team who were rock bottom. Maybe they thought they could just turn up and win. I don't see how it could be 'written' that they would beat you, otherwise every time a human manager played an AI team at the bottom they would lose more often than not.

On a side note, Blackburn had only won twice all season before they beat Man Utd 3-2 at Old Trafford on New Years Eve.

So you are 11th in the league and lost to the bottom team, that is nowhere near unrealistic. You are either poor at man management or poor at the tactical side of things.

Could be worth looking in the tactics forum for some advice.

Yes that's always a possibility but it's irritating when we lose to bottom teams because Van Persie can't finish on an open net. Especially after we pick up a bit of form.

My missus was Arsenal and Van Persie was average she signed Cavani and finished 3rd then won the league.

Everyone is making the point about Blackburn but this is very different in my opinion. This happens any time I pick up form and win 3 or 4 games, that was one match.

Van Persie only scored nine league goals in the previous season on my game. He does seem fairly average.

We all know van Persie is a fantastic player but he's never had a consistently great season before this one (although he was excellent in the second half of last season). This is mainly down to injuries. Having been injury-free for a period, we're now seeing the best of him, but I wonder if the game doesn't adequately reflect how good he is when fully fit.

I think you should have a look at the tactics forum as AcidBurn suggested. As I said it can't be scripted otherwise every player would have the same problem.

Everyone is making the point about Blackburn but this is very different in my opinion. This happens any time I pick up form and win 3 or 4 games, that was one match.

Yes, but you're not as good as Man Utd.

It's hard to say why you're struggling so much but there's bound to be an answer in your tactics somewhere.

I feel the same way, Chamakh and Walcott are more useful I find.

As was said before, it can't be scripted or everybody who manages Arsenal would have the same problem.

And in any case, why on Earth would SI want to make you fail?

Well failing is part of the game of course because it is part of management. I have used recommended tactics before as well as my own, still not enough results. It just irritates me.

Before we can draw any conclusions and offer the right help, the first question has to be: How old are you?

Well failing is part of the game of course because it is part of management. I have used recommended tactics before as well as my own, still not enough results. It just irritates me.

FM irritates us all at some point. What formation are you playing?

You could check the Arsenal thread in the good player forum, there are always people around in there willing to help.

Will do, last time it didn't help but another try may do. I am playing 3: 4-4-2, 4-5-1, and 4-2-3-1 all recommended other than the 4-4-2 which is my attacking formation for home games that seems to work well.

By recommended do you mean downloaded tactics?

No just recommendations from either the game itself (assistant manager) or other players. Haven't downloaded tactics.

When your players are on a good run do you want to send them out there feeling confident? Of course. Is there such a thing as overconfident? Yes, of course! So how does the result convey to you that your players were overconfident? By giving you 30 shots, and the opposition 1 goal! It means your players took the game for granted, and once a striker has missed a number of chances its going to be a bit of an uphill struggle as his confidence may dip, whereas the opposition GK is having the game of his life. Let me just say, I lost a game in the same way early in my managerial career. I made a note about it, and it has reminded me every 6 months, for the last 8 or 9 years! Thats how I remind myself how much a result like that stinks!

So try telling your players 'i expect a performance', put the pressure on them (your players) pre-game in the press conference, maybe doubting your chances a little, or saying it won't be easy, thats for sure, or "we can't go out there thinking we've already won, that would be disastrous".

Sometimes I tell my players in those games that I expect a win, but other times I just tell them to relax and the result will come, or hell, even just "good luck"!

I often say that "we will do well to get through" when playing a weak European opponent. It's my favourite.

There's no such thing as 'the game wants you to fail'. The game is, well, just a machine. Whether you win matches or not largely boils down to how you manage your team.

"No way would I lose to them."

A bigger problem than having a complacency issue with players, is having complacency issue with the manager itself , if you going to a match expecting a 100% win chance then I guarantee you, you'll get beaten more often than you should have.

I just had 3 draws in a row, one was a 0-0 at stamford bridge, other was me drawing from those 1 shot 1 goal. or random O.G

If you win 4-5 games in a row then lose when you are clear favourites, your team talk/morale management is wrong. Your tactic may also struggle to create space against ultradefensive opponents, but what is 100% certain is that such patterns comes from human errors.

However, it is still strange that having complete defensive control (they hardly get a sniff) leads to AI hyperefficiency, just to be clear on that. I am not sure that this is the case here, since Arsenalfan02071 is using standard tactics.

erm.. wow

2-0 up at anfield, neymar has the ball after getting to it first. ref blows for a foul. neymar is sent off for vicious foul? what foul? i saw him getting fouled.

then i get a goal dissallowed for offside, when he was a good 4-5 yards ONSIDE, and drew 2-2, still won title but really?

Surely if the game wanted you to fail you would be no where near the title?

If the game was true to real life there would probably be a lot more refereeing mistakes but I'm guessing they wouldn't dare introduce that kind of random decision making to officials as there would no doubt be uproar.

There are already ref mistakes in the game, just not to the same extent the papers make out in real life.

i just had one, that offside, made those chelsea goals look like hard decisions lol

true to life? still far too many goals from corners, not enough from free kicks, and i can turn nani into a crossing winger :/

omg. evra sent off for a nothing challange, press conferance seems to think it was a "vicious foul* i watched it 3 times. was a shirt tug -_-

Is this a serious thread?

No hahahaha this time?

You mustn't like Arsenal you seem to hahahaha everything else.

How are you getting on OP? Did you have a butchers in the Arsenal thread?

The club or the OP? I have nothing against either.